After a not so extraordinary but readable first volume Guggenheim went on auto-pilot for this one and guess what? It sucks.The two Secret Empire issues are so loosely tied to the event that I can't remember anything but that it takes place in Manhattan. Ah, yes, it also rekindles the Kitty/Piotr love story. Yaaawn...The 4 next issues bring back yet another bad guy from the grave, none other than Omega Red. Re-yaaawn...What else? Cheesy dialogues, corny twists, awkward transitions and mediocre ar...

A serial killer stalking the Xavier Institute and the return of Omega Red! Good stuff here, and the rotating team of artists are all pretty strong. I’m really digging Marc Guggenheim’s scripts, and so far this relaunch has been pretty damn good.

Weirdly unfocused.

I really liked this volume! Seems the Gold Team mostly sidestepped the whole Secret Empire thing.Probably for the best.

During the Secret Empire event the X-Men have a mutant serial killer problem. Kitty has to go to Washington to speak out against a reprehensible anti-mutant Bill. The team has to go to Russia with rumours of Omega Red's return. And they writes manage to squeeze not one, but two team romances. Just middlin' stuff... good work, but nothing special. 7 out of 12

The collection left me debating what I wanted to give it. This is the X-book--of those I've read since the IVX story ended and the entire X-Men line relaunched--that feels most like classic era X-Men aimed at long term fans (25+years) like myself. I loved the first volume, but have to admit I was a bit...split on this one. If half stars were available it would definitely be a three-five. Guggenheim knows these characters well, and the various character moments between Peter and Katya, Kurt and R...

I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed about 80% of this volume. It manages to escape the crossover event unscathed, unlike X-Men Blue, and tells stories that aren't dependent on whatever the Secret Empire event is doing. The Omega Red story is my personal favourite as Colossus is a real stand out for me so far in this series, and it's nice to see a storyline where he is in the spotlight. Now, where this completely fails is the final story which centres around the lizard character. It's an absol...

The impressive thing about Gugenheim's X-Men Gold isn't that it's well characterized and that it manages to capture just a bit of the lightness of Claremont's classic X-Men. It isn't that his stories are interesting enough, and manage to touch upon many classic enemies.It's that he manages to be almost totally unoriginal. I mean the characters note how Peter's inability to become Colossus is just like when he used to be unable to turn human. Kitty notes how hooking up with Peter again would just...

oops I read a Secret Empire bookit was fine? but also: I don't care, stop trying to make Hydra happen

This is the kind of Secret Empire crossover I like to see. The X-Men just look up in the sky and find out they are trapped in the Darkforce dimension and then go back to their regularly scheduled programming. Here they are dealing with a new, more militant looking version of the X-cutioner. We don't find out anything about him other than he blames mutants for killing his wife and kid. A little lazy really. Then we go to Russia and face the Bratva and Omega Red in a story Guggenhein already wrote...

Look, I'm invested at least so far as the Kitty/Piotr wedding, but without that kinda of nostalgia-driven stunt, I might not have bothered buying after this trade. The writing is fine, but the plot beats are rushed. Twelve issues in, there is not a feeling that any of this matters. Piotr and Illyana have a secret uncle!...whom we will probably never hear from again, until Jay and Miles are in their 50s and X-Plaining this era of X-Books. I really don't mind the idea of Kitty and Piotr back toget...

Continuing the great x-read of 2017/18...Better than volume 1./end reviewNah, I will have to rant and rave for far too long as per type. But that really is my thought on this volume in a nutshell.It seems to have found its feet a bit more now that we have gotten the reintroductions out of the way. There's slightly less of a both feet planted firmly in the past sort of feel to it. (Funny aside - I am always upset over the x-books' inability to move forward in time but my two favorite things about...

I'm really digging this book's retro vibe. It's the first book to scratch my old school X-Men itch for quite some time. (Very minor spoilers below; you have been warned!)There are some amazing character moments in this volume, particularly between Kitty and Pete and Kurt and Rachel, but the absolute highlight for me was Kitty going full ninja to take down the serial killer in issue eight. Hell, she even referred to herself as Shadowcat for the first time in too damned long! That one had me grinn...

Marc Guggenhiem has the dubious distinction of capturing the spirit of Chris Claremont-lite. The characterization is better here than the first volume, but the plots just don't feel new or original. Part of the problem is the weight of all the cannon Guggenhiem appears to be respecting, which other X-titles have largely cleared out in from a new focus or a plot constraint (time displaced original X-men) which removes some of the four decades of plot baggage. This saddens me because of this mixtu...

Honestly, reading this makes me realize how much X-Men needed Hickman. This is not horrible but run of the mill same storylines we always expect. Bringing back Omegared for the millionth time only to die in another issue. Relationship problems with the same characters over and over again. New found powers but then they get beat by some new baddie. Nothing is horrible, it's just the same old. I do enjoy Kitty as leader, and the art is solid enough, and there's cute moments with the relationships....

In between missions the X-Men slowly form romantic couples. This adds a human layer to the action, but still feels a bit like a soap opera. Kitty and Peter, Rachel and Nightcrawler. I wonder who Logan will hook up with. The volume ends with the episode that makes me rethink reading this whole series. Mojo, marriage and likely more short stories. I thought the standard was 5-6 issue story arcs. Also the roster may not be my cup of tea. It seems that the smart dialogue was the only thing that kept...

[Read as single issues]Okay, I know I said in my review of volume 1 that I'd be happy with just solid X-Men stories for a while, but I've changed my mind; we can be a bit more adventurous than this. The Secret Empire three parter feels very bland, from the choice of villain to the predictable Kitty/Colossus storyline. I'll give it props for tackling Secret Empire from a different angle than most other books, at least. The Russian storyline however is pretty unforgivable - I feel like Marc Guggen...

Super fast read. Some character notes for kitty peter kurt and rachel. Everyone else stands around. It's sad when a minor character KOLOGOTH is more interesting than all the X-Men. Hope we see that storyline again.

This volume is like a poorly made cake. It looks really yummy, and it seems like it has all of the right ingredients, but when you start to cut into it, it kind of crumbles. But, hey, it's still cake!It starts out really exciting and frantic: There is a serial killer loose in the mansion, there are also time bombs in the mansion, there are demons running around outside, and an angry mob is attacking Nightcrawler. All of this gets resolved a little too quickly, however. We don't learn much about

Great volume!! Returning to what makes the X-Men great!! Really enjoying the artwork and the constant changes!! Sometimes you find that there’s an artist eventually that changes it and makes you dislike the comic for a bit, but every iteration was great.It wasn’t quite as good as the first volume and there are 2 issues that are slow paced but they can be forgiven for this as they set up plot points that I no doubt will play a part in the next volume!! On the up and up and would recommend for new...